It was the second semi-finals of football at the Lusofonia Games 2014, Goa. It was a wonderful evening and the local crowd was gathering up to fill the Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Fatorda to witness India play host to Macau in the second semi-finals.
India were in full control of the game from the start, playing classic possession football creating numerous chances throughout the 90 minutes. However Goa-India had to wait until the 17th minute to take the lead from a well struck 25-yard free kick by local boy and crowd favourite Brandon Fernandes. The Macau team who put on a rather lazy and lethargic performance found Brandon too hard to handle who was all over the pitch, supplying through balls, key passes and drilling shoots from outside the box. The first half ended 1-0.
India picked up just where they left at during the break and started the second half with the same flair but couldn’t find that second goal to kill the game off. They created plenty of chances but just couldn’t put the ball into the net whereas Macau couldn’t be seen nowhere near the opposition’s penalty area. India’s skipper who was very electrifying down the flanks had made many dribbles and made a fine pass into the box only to find none of his team mates there to receive it. It was not until the final quarter of the second half that the game started to spark up. India got a glorious one-on-one opportunity that was disappointingly put wide.
Indian defenders then made a terrifying back pass that awarded Macau with a glorious one-on-one opportunity in the final 10 minutes of the game, however the striker managed to only side net to the relief of the local crowd who almost got up on their feet abusing the Indian defender for his blunder. India’s star playmaker Brandon was still doing all the talking on the pitch for India along with his team mates, winning back possession, keeping possession and making key passes and defense cutting through balls but still struggled to find that game killing goal. It was not until the 90th minute, Sahil produced an amazing individual run, dribbling past, not one, two but three defenders, making himself one-on-one with the goalkeeper and slotting home India’s second goal. Sahil ran towards the East Stand and saluted the local crowd for their enthusiastic support throughout the game.
Neto’s tactically solid Indian team will now face Mozambique in the finals of the Lusofonia Games 2014 held in Goa. Hope to see the same scintillating performance by team Goa-India.
Goal Scorers Brandon Fernandes and Sahil Tavora